Licenses to climb Half Dome made permanent

Yosemite National Park will permanently limit the number of hikers clambering up the cables to the top of the famously beautiful and treacherous hunk of granite known as Half Dome, officials said Friday.

The ruling late last month codifies a permitting system along a two mile stretch of Half Dome Trail, where several people have fallen to their deaths in recent years.

The park’s report said limits on the number of people who risk their necks on the hair raising climb to the top of the enormous escarpment would not have a significant environmental impact. The rules, however, were modified so that park officials could increase the number of climbers when fewer people than expected show up on certain days, said Kari Cobb, the Yosemite spokeswoman.

The Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan, which was first approved on an interim basis in 2010, originally allowed 300 permits a day to day hikers and 100 a day to backpackers. Cobb said the number of Half Dome climbers was often far fewer than the number of permits given out, so this year officials will have the flexibility give out more permits if necessary two days prior to the date of the hike. Only 75 backpacking permits will be given out.

“Last year if we gave out 300 permits and 200 showed up, that would be it,” Cobb said. “This year we will have the flexibility to look at trends and offer more permits to make up 300 people.”

Cobb said the number of permits will be adjusted over time based on the average number of people who show up on particular days.

The National Park Service began limiting the number of hikers on the enormous sliced-in-half granite dome to combat regular bottlenecks on the sloping 8,842-foot-elevation peak. As many as 1,200 people – including children, flabby tourists and the elderly – were making the grueling 17-mile round trip on weekends and holidays and then squeezing together onto the cables.

The jostling on the slick rock wall, which features drops into the abyss on both sides, turned one of the world’s signature hikes into a spine-tingling flirtation with death. Several people have tumbled from the cables to their deaths over the years and dozens were rescued after falling or getting stuck. It is believed that at least one of the falls was related to overcrowding.

Two people have been killed in falls on Half Dome since the permitting system was implemented, but only one victim slipped from the cables and that was during wet weather, according to records.

People can enter a lottery for permits at recreation.gov for a $1.50 service charge starting in March. Lotteries will also be held every day for up to 50 permits during the hiking season. On each application, the trip leader can apply for up to six permits on as many as seven dates.